Vang Vieng Market, Laos © Yip Seng Leong

The difficulty in converting national economic growth into poverty reduction is explained by the fact that over 80% of the population lives in rural areas working on just 5% of the country’s land that is suitable for farming. Lacking access to credit or economies of scale, many households survive predominantly by subsistence – markets for additional foodstuffs being inaccessible and expensive. Difficulties are especially acute for ethnic minorities in the northern uplands, these groups falling within the Lao Sung and Lao Theung ethnic categories, over 20% of the population cut off geographically and by language from the increasingly dynamic economy of the capital Vientiane and the majority lowland Lao Loum ethnic group.

A report published by the World Food Programme (WFP) in November 2007 concludes that “two thirds of the rural population are either food insecure (13%) or live on the edge of food security” and that “every second child in the rural areas is chronically malnourished”, a proportion unchanged over the last 10 years. The government has responded with a National Nutrition Policy 2008-2020 targeting the locations most in need.

Eschewing reference to the influence of rising world food prices, the WFP report refers instead to the direct correlation between food security in Laos and the tragic legacy of the Vietnamese-American War. Laos is known as the most heavily bombed and mined country in history, with the most severely affected provinces being Savannakhet, Xieng Khouang, Saravane and Khammouane. The scattered unexploded ordnance (UXO), renders about 2/3rds of potentially productive land too treacherous to cultivate, exacerbating the already problematic food security situation. International aid agencies are working to raise awareness of the dangers amongst communities in the target zones while the Lao National UXO program (UXO LAO) is the national government agency responsible for coordinating mine/UXO clearance. Inevitably, progress is desperately slow, especially in the context of farm productivity.

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